NOW president: Ann Romney lacks “life experience” and “imagination” to relate to most Americans

posted at 10:26 am on April 13, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

Via Newsbusters, NOW President Terry O’Neill ignores the First Rule of Holes (stop digging!) and provides another cycle for Republicans to defend Ann Romney and stay-at-home moms. Instead of leaving bad enough alone, O’Neill appeared on Ed Schultz’ MSNBC show last night and attempted to rewrite Hilary Rosen’s faceplant and keep the attack on Ann Romney for not having a salaried job in the workforce as a means to paint the Romneys as out of touch. Say, remember when feminism meant supporting the choices of women and defending them from being marginalized and demeaned? Good times, good times:

TERRY O’NEILL: What would we be saying if Hillary Clinton had said this: that Ann Romney has never, has not worked for pay outside the home a day in her life? That’s my understanding that’s an accurate statement, and that raises the exact issue that Hilary Rosen was trying to get to, which is do Mr. & Mrs. Romney have the kind of life experience and if not, the imagination, to really understand what most American families are going through right now? I think that that was what Hilary was getting out, and so she left out the words “for pay outside the home.”

Stick around to the end to see Rep. Maxine Waters keep it classy by calling the presumptive Republican nominee “Mitt Rot-ney,” but O’Neill is the real show here. Once again, we get to see the professional Left’s utter disdain for women who chose to stay home with their children rather than work in the workplace. Do they also lack “life experience” and “imagination”? Are their political and economic views also irrelevant? Is a woman’s worth entirely measured by her salary? Is that the official position of NOW? If so, then perhaps they may want to think about an official name change.

My friend Jonathan Martin of Politico commented on Twitter about how quickly the Right embraced grievance politics in this instance. It’s a worthwhile point, and this can certainly get overplayed, but it ignores a couple of other points. First, Democrats have been accusing the GOP of conducting a “war on women” since February of last year, when DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz explicitly made that accusation, and which VP Joe Biden reiterated last night — on the same show, despite claims from Democrats earlier in the day that they never indulged in that language:

Vice President Joe Biden said tonight that what he called a Republican-led effort to rollback the rights of women is “real” and will “intensify.”

“I think the ‘war on women’ is real,” Biden told MSNBC’s “The Ed Show,” deploying the politically-charged phrase for the first time on the national stage.

“And look, I’ll tell you when it’s going to intensify – the next president of the United States is going to get to name one, possibly two or more, members to the Supreme Court,” he added.

The grievance fight in this case has been under way for fourteen months, so to blame the Right for responding is a little odd. Also, Rosen took a swipe at a candidate’s wife, as O’Neill did again last night. Once again, don’t blame the Right for responding to it.

Update: Democrats claim to be backing away from the “war on women” rhetoric, but neither Biden nor their merchandisers have gotten the message.

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